Users of wireless communication devices agree on rating and charging terms in a service provider agreement. The network service provider, or carrier, typically offers a variety of plans with different variables. The variables include the amount of air time per billing cycle that is charged at a minimum rate, more favorable rates during “off-peak ” times such as nights and weekends (as opposed to “on-peak ” or “peak”) times, different rates for on-network use and roaming use, fees for special services such as call conferencing and email usage, etc. The amount of time available per billing cycle at a certain rate is sometimes referred to as the amount of time in a bucket. For example, the user typically chooses a number of minutes per month, e.g., 300 minutes per month, that are free or charged at a minimal rate. After the 300-bucket minutes are used, airtime is charged or charged at a higher rate.
Users benefit from having an awareness of how much money they will spend if they use their device at a certain time or in a certain way. For example, the user might like to know that only five minutes are left in the bucket. This rating and charging awareness is even more important with data connections than with voice connections. For example, sending or receiving email during peak hours may be more expensive than during off-peak hours. For the user to adjust device usage based on rating and charging conditions, however, the user currently must affirmatively find out what the conditions are and act or refrain from acting accordingly.
Moreover, as the usage of wireless communication devices proliferate to the extent that employers are providing such devices to employees and parents are providing such devices to their children, whether the devices are being solely used for their intended purpose (e.g., to conduct business or for emergencies) becomes an issue. Although it is possible to review a bill itemizing device usage, improper usage, if any, would have already occurred and would have to be paid for. Reviewing potentially thousands of bills would also be cumbersome.
Currently, the ability to automatically manage device use is very limited, costly, and awkward. For example, if a user wishes for an action to be taken based on a condition, such as having particular phone numbers disabled under certain conditions, it would be handled on an occurance-by-occurance basis at the provider site. The provider must program a local provider application to recognize that the device belonging to the particular account is making a particular call when a specified condition is current. The provider must then invoke a native application on the device, such as the call controller, to disable the specified phone numbers. This has several limitations and disadvantages. The user must make a written or verbal request to the provider. The provider must assign someone to program the provider application, and activities of the affected device must be monitored, which slows call handling. The provider can only invoke native applications, not downloaded applications, which limits the that can be taken in response to a condition. Various other problems exist.
In the drawings, identical reference numbers identify identical or substantially similar elements or acts. To easily identify the discussion of any particular element or act, the most significant digit or digits in a reference number refer to the figure number in which that element is first introduced (e.g., element 704 is first introduced and discussed with respect to FIG. 7).
The headings provided herein are for convenience only and do not necessarily affect the scope or meaning of the claimed invention.